Blood Ties - Rewrite
by Cyclic Infinity
Summary: When brutally assaulted on his sixth birthday, Naruto's dormant blood stirs and reveals a power long thought dead. But with such power comes a price; Naruto will be hunted down should the secret get out, a commodity coveted by men good and evil. Forged in the fires of youth and tempered by the tenets of hard work, he'll have to defend himself or die trying.
1. Chapter 1: Schemes

**Blood Ties**

 **Chapter One: Schemes**

Danzō had never been a patient man. The hokage knew this, and yet there he stood in the lobby waiting. The receptionist had scarcely given him a glance before turning back to her desk, scrawling a word and then tapping away with her pencil. Graphite tip to the hard wood, second after second, tapping and tapping. Just one quick snap and it would be done with. But he waited.

He fished through the loose folds of his robes to ensure the document was as he had left it. And it was, secure and whole, as it had been a minute before. As it would be a minute later when he checked again. His visible eye cast about the room absorbing every detail, a disgusted flicker growing on his countenance.

The lobby was infested with windows. They cluttered every wall, taller than a man and twice as wide. Through them Danzō could see flashes of dim civilians shuffling on by. Every pair of eyes glanced inward as it passed. Awed or bored or curious, every gaze swept through the windows and sparked Danzō's nerves. All this exposure would raise questions, perhaps some of these imbeciles would even remember the bandaged old man they glimpsed. Worse, he could hear them, chattering inanities beneath the clattering of leather and wood on the stone brick.

Too many points of entry, too much light, too many curious glances pouring like bacteria into an open wound. The doors were open, the receptionist warm and inviting, the stairway front and center, wide enough to comfortably hold half a dozen shinobi. Bright sunlight polluted every inch of the tower with an aura of welcoming. This was exactly why he avoided all this nonsense—with so many distractions he just couldn't understand how Hiruzen ever did work.

It was a feint, he knew. Stealth and shadow can be thrown off by mere light. Deception is the truest of the ninja arts, limited only by skill, by cleverness. Yet better than one alone is two together, and although the bright front brought prosperity Danzō harbored his doubts. Unshakable doubts, deep in his soul, deep in the socket of his missing eye.

Worst of all was the blatant pandering. Hanging between every window, were indulgent portraits of Konoha's landmarks. Bright pastels blared, a visual cacophony of sickening optimism and cheer, whitewashing Konoha's history. And there, below the visual noise, was the array of comfortable seating for the hokage's petitioners—cushioned chairs and couches all in careful view of the receptionist. Danzō could not bear to submit, even tacitly, to Hiruzen's authority and so he stood, stiff and fidgeting.

Tap tap, graphite on wood.

The noise grated, excessively so. Far louder than is should be, no matter the quiet in the room. It would be some minor genjutsu, then, Danzō thought. Sound amplification, selected, to tip his equilibrium. Hiruzen had always been rather selective in his choice of secretaries, and prone to cultivating loyalty.

No matter. With the trump in his pocket, Hiruzen could only hope to delay the inevitable. Though Hiruzen did tend to be stubborn beyond all reason, this petition nonsense would weigh the scales. At last. Until then, he would wait until Hiruzen came to him. No gain in allowing the man with the deck to see his hand. Silence was the last requirement to gather his thoughts before the confrontation. He tuned out the tapping.

But she was still there, dead center in the room. He could still see her, he was forced to see her. Unless he turned to the obnoxiously bright walls or the boorish civilians stumbling past the windows. His eye was drawn to her movement, the pencil pivoting between her bony fingers, slamming into the dark oak. And his mind quickly filled in the void. Carving through his defenses, piercing directly to his eardrums, the tap tap, tap tap, _tap tap_ , _**tap tap**_.

Danzō rapped his cane on the wood floor and limped a few steps closer to the desk. "Miss," he growled, "if you could cease your idle tapping, I would be most appreciative."

The woman looked up, youthful green eyes betraying her intentions. Tap tap, tap tap. She quirked her mouth into a vicious little smile and set the pencil down.

"As you wish Danzō-sama. The hokage will be with you shortly. You don't mind if I write, do you? The scrawling won't upset you?"

No more. He was not some common shinobi to be cowed by sarcasm, laid low by this little nuisance. No one beside Hiruzen could stop him, and he'd given that fool more deference than the gods themselves deserved. Danzō balled his hands, wrapping his fingers around his thumbs, and squeezed until both joints popped. A holdover habit from his youth, a well-known sign that his patience had worn ragged. It galled him that Hiruzen's little game could work so well.

"I will stand no more delays, Hikari. Warn the hokage if you like, I _will_ be seeing him immediately."

Hikari shrugged indifferently and immediately resumed her tapping. Little to do, then, but escape up the stairs. At least high above, the exposure would be reduced. Up the stairs, winding and winding, past dozens of subordinate offices, past the council chambers, to the very end. The thick wooden door creaked open a step ahead of Danzō and he found a frazzled Hiruzen smoking behind his desk. His gaze was buried in a morass of loose papers, and he did not seem to have the slightest intention of greeting his visitor.

He could at least have the courtesy to look smug.

"Hiruzen."

"Ah yes. Danzō. Kind of you to be so prompt. I am quite intensely busy, as you see."

"Yes, your secretary did imply as much."

"Ah, dear Hikari. Never puts a word out of place." Hiruzen remained engrossed in his paperwork.

Danzō stood perfectly still, allowing a tense silence to drift across the room. Hiruzen still made no move, the idle shuffle of the paper on the desk quite obviously an act. Patently absurd in its obviousness, poorer acting than Danzō had ever seen from the Hokage.

"This is no time for your petty games Hiruzen. The long-term survival of the village is at stake. This is a social crossroads, even you ought to see that."

"Can you not tell that I know?" Hiruzen's posture tensed, his chakra flared pulsing through the room with anger and dread. His gaze remained locked to his desk.

Not a show of contempt, then, Danzō realized. Fear, helplessness. Hiruzen had not invited him to verbally spar and gloat over his success, but out of genuine need. This, he could use.

"Rather than a pivot to supremacy, Naruto has become the arbiter of our demise. We were both wrong," Hiruzen took a deep breath "I was wrong. Naruto is not a symbol of victory, but of tragedy. Not a tool, but a trap."

Danzō took the opportunity to look smug. With Hiruzen's gaze locked away, he could afford it, for once.

"I warned you. There's a reason why the other villages treated the Jinchūriki as they have. Most people, most shinobi for that matter, cannot accept that the will of such powerful beings could ever be suppressed by a human ego. It seems so evident. A demon container must be tainted by the demon it contains."

"Superstition in its most base form, a complete lack of understanding of sealing, and worse, a lack of curiosity to understand it. Prejudice and ignorance should not be the basis for our actions, even if we are not the ones to express it."

Danzō clucked his tongue. A quirk of his, a dismissive noise deeper, more resonant then pulling the tongue back from the teeth, than pulling back from the roof of the mouth. Scornful in a way only he could manage.

"Though we should never hold it ourselves, if the majority believes in it. If the vast majority believes in it we must consider it. And we should use it. Beliefs are a tool, Hiruzen, like any hammer or kunai. How many times must I explain this to you?"

Hiruzen hissed. Deep yet shrill, utterly penetrating. "Until you convince me that people are inherently evil, cruel, and ignorant. But enough of this," Hiruzen waved his hand as if to cast away the conversation. A leaf in the wind. "We are here to discuss the petition."

"You cannot be seriously considering it Hiruzen."

Hiruzen glanced up from the ocean of paper engulfing on his desk. Fury smoldered in his eyes, a stark contrast to the chill of his voice.

"I don't have a choice. Have you _read_ any of these?" He snatched up a handful of papers in his fist, crushing them. Danzō stood silent, unmoving and unmoved. His one visible eye was half-lidded, but Hiruzen knew the facade well.

"Ah, no answer. Not that it matters, really. You know, I think I can predict exactly what you're thinking. You couldn't be _bothered_." Hiruzen's final word was calm, but bore down on Danzō with the intensity of a roar. With an almost reflexive assault he launched the balled paper towards Danzō. The old man barely had time to step aside before it embedded in the wall.

"I don't need to read them to know their contents. I won't be wasting my time Hiruzen. Not for you, not for Naruto."

"I don't believe you quite understand the gravity here. Or perhaps you simply feel it an inevitability, or maybe even an opportunity." Hiruzen growled, deep and guttural.

Danzō was taken aback for a moment. This was unprecedented, primal fury. Nothing he could say would sway the conversation. He steeled himself for the tsunami of anger that would wash over him.

"This is no time for your scrabble for power! We may be too late. Civil War!" Hiruzen shuddered, his fury nearly beyond control. "Civil war awaits us, Danzō!"

His passion jostled the desk, allowing pages to drift away. A loose paper fluttered to Danzō's feet and he bent to it, giving a cursory glance. It was, of course, as Hiruzen described. He stepped forward, palms down and forward. A placation.

"There's always another way Hiruzen. Ask and you can consider it done." He raised the paper in his hand. "You cannot allow your soldiers to believe they can threaten treason, your control is treacherously fragile."

Hiruzen scowled. Underneath his desk he formed a series of hand-seals as he spoke. "I absolutely cannot condone murder, nor will I even consider it. You _know_ that, I'm sure, so I can't imagine why you're asking now."

"If you want Naruto to stay safe, if you want him to assimilate into the shinobi corps, we cannot wait any longer to act. You've been too lenient Hiruzen. You are the _hokage_ , if you bow to pressure from these fools they will never follow you again." A scroll seemed to materialize from nowhere into Danzō's hand. "Let me stamp this petty little squabble into oblivion."

A growl escaped Hiruzen's throat. "And how would you do that? Murder? Manipulation? Whatever your scheme, I _will_ discover it and I _will_ turn those Root pawns of yours over to interrogation. No limits. Not that you'd care, or that my threats can stop you."

Danzō clucked. His good eye veiled emotion, yet his chakra pulsed with unfettered scorn thickening the air with a ragged chill.

"Come now Hiruzen, there's no need to be so bitter. You wouldn't be involved, of course. We can't afford to have you implicated in any way." The scroll in Danzō's hand vanished as suddenly as it had appeared and he took another step forward. "But even if you knew, there'd be no evidence. They would look like accidents, a little cardiac arrest here, a carelessly placed letter there. Just mix one of your little concoctions and forget this conversation ever happened, you'll know you made the right decision when the opposition evapora—"

"No!" Hiruzen's bellow blasted his desk clear. It was a wail of noise and fury, a gale that forced Danzō back a step. Pages flailed through the air, contorting and twisting into grotesque impressions of life. One tore past Danzō, slashing a line of red across his cheek. A second passed without harm, a third grasped his arm and more followed. In moments he was immobilized, the storm of paper raging on around him.

As the storm's momentum wore thin, pages plastered themselves to every surface, black ink gazing out like a hundred thousand eyes. Dread and doom pierced Danzō from every angle, hatred and anxiety and the price of failure indelibly etching into his mind. For all the emotion flowing through his one visible eye, he remained physically serene, not a single muscle twitching under the assault.

Hiruzen frowned and raised one hand, with two fingers curled in. A wave of chakra burst from it, seemingly pulling all the air from the room, sucking the paper into a fibrous mass of hate and fear. Entirely encased in paper, Danzō's voice very nearly faded entirely before reaching Hiruzen. Only one word emerged from the cocoon.

"Dispel."

The office shattered before the two old men, revealing it to be just as it was when their conversation began. Danzō bent to grab the paper by his feet and crushed it in his fist.

"I see rational discussion is out of the question. For all that you rant and rave, _you_ are the one refusing to see the situation for what it is. Eager blindness and petty idealism will never solve your problems, no matter how vehemently you ignore my advice."

"Advice? You think these demented ravings are _advice?_ " Hiruzen's tone grew in intensity as he leaned further forward over his desk. "We've already tried this! Elimination is not, cannot ever be a permanent solution! There is already far more fear and distrust among the people and—worse, far _far_ worse—among my shinobi, than we can manage. Where do you think the courage to petition _me_ appeared from? This is desperation and exhaustion, and any more of this nonsense will only lead to instability and open our gates to invasion. Have you learned nothing since the purge? There is another way, and until we find it we _must_ run damage control."

"Another way? Do you truly believe that Hiruzen?" Danzō began to pace.

"I do. I must, if we're to keep Konoha alive. What purpose is there to govern if your only solution is to assassinate any dissenters? That is unsustainable regardless. Someone will find out, it will only start a spiral."

"You know the purpose in it Hiruzen. Abandon this false dichotomous nonsense already, you know better than to cling to such impossible ideas." Danzō acted as best he could, but the time for dialogue was over. If it had even _been_ in this particular meeting. Hopefully his contempt, his boredom would stay at bay.

"Peaceful resolution isn't impossible, it's the _only_ way we're going to have stability in Konoha."

"You don't want it solely for Konoha, I know you too well to believe that. Your obsession with your legacy won't permit you to leave the world in any state but perfection, forged thus by your hand, before you die. Temper your wild fancies with reality Hiruzen or someone else will do it for you, and that may very well break you."

Danzō turned from Hiruzen, stepping silently to one of the office's many bookcases. As his fingers traced from one spine to the next. There was a particular book here, something he needed. Page 136, from the Shodai.

"Try all you like, but unless they see real consequences this won't ever stop." Danzō spoke without paying Hiruzen any mind. The hokage's breath caught when his advisor pulled a book from the shelf.

"You've read the journals and notes of your predecessors. Do you recall how the Uchiha were granted their place in Konoha? How the Nidaime stopped a revolt after the war with Iwa before it could begin? Perhaps you forgot even what the Shodai truly meant with his 'will of fire.'" Danzō opened the book to a page seemingly at random and hurled it to the hokage's desk, scattering every loose paper around the room.

It was the Shodai's recounting of the alliance of the Senju and Uchiha clans, laying the foundation for Konoha. The words were weighted heavily with regret, but the tragedy was clear. And the founding ethic of the village came through: for the good of the many, not the one.

"I remember everything I've read. These situations are not the same, and the world now is not the world then." Hiruzen felt surer of his words and his voice began to swell with conviction. "Perhaps the Shodai had no other choice, but right now we do. The Will of Fire does not mean to burn the undergrowth at every opportunity, it's to know when the time is right. Konoha is too fragile to withstand more death, more hatred. Violence cannot solve all the problems of the world, and right now what the people need, what Naruto needs, what the whole of the shinobi world needs is less blood and stubbornness, and all the good will we can muster."

"Your naiveté will be your downfall, as I've told you a thousand times." Danzō droned. He glided silently across the floor and changed the book's open page seemingly at random again. Hiruzen glanced down to check the passage Danzō wanted to make a point about, then seemed to glaze over it. He was beyond goading, after the once.

"You're right about one thing, though. The Will of Fire does indeed call for knowing the right time to burn the plants choking the life from the trees, but frequency has nothing to do with it. This hesitation you have is just your own fear of being written into the annals of history as a tyrant and murderer. You may not like to hear this, but it must be said."

Danzō slammed the book shut and threw it from the office, shattering the window. "History lies. Whoever is victorious writes whatever he wants, within the realm of plausibility. I know you think you can trust a man's journal, his private thoughts and feelings. You should know that is dangerously naive. Men lie even to themselves. That's a particular idiosyncrasy of history you should be intimately familiar with. You know the decision you have to make. I can have a list of the instigators of this abomination before the day's done. I expect you to make use of it."

In the span of a blink Danzō disappeared. Hiruzen glared where his advisor had stood. He tore a kunai from its drawer and aimed for Danzō's now absent heart. The metal blade was absorbed into the wood of the wall with a soft crack.

 _Danzō is a conniving old fool, we can't assassinate our way out of this. Not this time. There must be a better way._

Hiruzen hadn't requested Danzō's aid for many years, not since the purge. Drastic action had been the only possibility then. It was the only visible solution now. But they needed a far less bloody resolution—Konoha would not survive another slaughter.

He trembled in frustration. Clasping the desk did nothing but shake it as well, gripping harder only gouged furrows in its surface. A rattling started, objects trapped in drawers dancing about and knocking into one another, and the ocean of paper flowed off the wood in a waterfall of betrayal. As the layers sloughed away, Hiruzen saw the source of the madness.

It was a single sheet of paper, the ink slightly smeared and a set of greasy fingerprints hugging one edge. It was written with an elegant, flowing hand, yet lacked any unique flourish. Whoever wrote it was clearly a skilled forger, but the prose itself betrayed the author. It reeked of Fugaku's influence.

"Petition for the Execution of Uzumaki Naruto" rested boldly at the head of the page. Burning to the right in its amber splendor was the seal of the shinobi council, and to the left, the deep green of the civilian council. Two short paragraphs were below, explaining away any protests Hiruzen might raise. The Uchiha Patriarch's insight was uncanny.

 _Insufferable, arrogant, ignorant, damnable…_ Hiruzen's thoughts trailed off into a flurry of insults. None was strident enough for the traitorous Uchiha.

Despite his efforts, Hiruzen could not deny that a few of the points had merit. An execution, if properly staged, _would_ boost morale and military recruitment. Their anger was not unearned or inappropriate, though unfortunately misaimed. However, there was a time and place for such things, and the running of the village did not qualify for either.

Gripping the desk tighter for a moment, Hiruzen drew in all the air his lungs could hold. As the air escaped in a rush, he felt some of his tension leave with it. There was still a frothing beneath the surface, but Hiruzen held it in check as he lifted the thin sheet of paper from his desk.

"So flimsy," he mumbled. "So delicate, just one burst of chakra away from oblivion. One man's ideas to bring an entire village to ruin."

Hiruzen sent a few short bursts of wind chakra through the paper, causing it to thrash wildly. It was ripping from the force of the movement, his sensitive fingers able to feel the tug of the fibers tearing apart.

Stopping just shy of shredding the paper, Hiruzen grunted and set it back onto his desk. He stood and began pacing in front of the broad window, suppressing his restless anger.

He turned to the enormous window, face before its fresh hole. The wind rushing through seemed to cleanse his tension, just a little. He stood breathing in the village air, sensitive nose picking up the smells of the village. The people, the wood of buildings, the spice of the festival and the smoke of the fireworks. The pollen of the Kyojin trees, the ripening of the fall crop, pitch of newly tarred roofs ready for the winter rains. Whatever warped ideology was corrupting the minds of its citizens, the scent, the look, the physicality of Konoha remained the same. That, at least, was a comfort.

Naruto would never be executed unless the combined council could reach a unanimous decision, which had not happened once in its fifteen years of existence, and still wouldn't so long as Danzō still had a plan for Naruto. But this barely favorable turn of events didn't blind Hiruzen to the resilience of the vengeful. Whoever had orchestrated all this would try again. Failure breeds desperation, and Hiruzen fully expected an assault on the boy. Security and surveillance would need touching up, that much he was certain of.

There was so much else to worry about, the hokage was glad to have at least one certainty. Gazing down at his village, bathed in the scarlet light of sunset, he observed his citizens. From the top of the administrative tower, every person was no larger than an ant, and the throngs milling about gave Hiruzen the impression of an anthill that had regurgitated its whole population.

As Hiruzen thought more on it, he decided the metaphor was apt. There was a celebration on after all: the anniversary of the defeat of the Kyūbi. Although he was furious at his fellow elites, he couldn't fault the people of Konoha. The civilians went about their lives as routinely and mindlessly as ants, and on days like this few had any aim. They'd adapted, celebrated courage and sacrifice in the stead of mourning, it was unfortunate that the group mentality had placed all their unspent sorrow and rage on Naruto.

 _They wouldn't hold hatred this intense without a guiding hand._ Hiruzen thought. He couldn't be sure how it started—he'd seen a single misinformed butcher begin a chain reaction resulting in village-wide outcry. It could be anything, but the hokage had a gut feeling it wasn't ignorance and a misunderstanding in this case. The civilians always trusted his word on ninja matters, a trust that was hard-won and carefully kept.

 _If they don't come around… well… I'll address that if it comes to it._ The hokage shook his head gently. _I hope the lessons stuck._

Hiruzen's musings were interrupted by a knock at the door. He felt his heart skip a beat and quickly took a seat at his desk. Papers were still scattered about the floor, but there was no time to clean up. Only high-priority matters were ever brought up to his office without an appointment.

"Come in."

The door crept open to reveal an ANBU with vertical silver hair. His face was hidden by an animal mask, a representation of a dog, but the hokage easily recognized the young man. His one visible eye kept its focus intently on Hiruzen.

"Hokage-sama," he said with a slight bow.

"What can I do for you Kakashi?"

"It's about Naruto," the silver-haired ANBU replied in a monotone.

Hiruzen sucked deep breath through his teeth. So soon, and on the anniversary. They weren't even trying to hide from him anymore.

"How bad is the situation?"

"He's been attacked. He was able to somehow kill his assailant and escape, but we've been unable to locate him. The other ANBU on patrol are searching as we speak."

Hiruzen sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Are you sure of this Kakashi?"

"Yes, hokage-sama. I discovered the body and initiated the search. It– it doesn't look good. There was more than enough blood to get the scent, but I was too late and it was already lost in the crowds." Kakashi paused, seeming uncertain of how to proceed. "But that's not the greatest concern."

Hiruzen raised both eyebrows high and inclined his head forward slightly. The unnatural shadow that descended over his face was one of the grave.

"The assailant received multiple deep stab wounds and had both hands severed. No one sensed any of the Kyūbi's chakra at the scene, but it almost certainly had a hand in this. Even if the Kyūbi is influencing Naruto, his wounds must be severe, probably fatal. This may be a recovery mission now, hokage-sama."

Kakashi stood rigidly to attention, but Hiruzen's trained eyes could tell he was shaken. The eyes through the mask, too wide. A tiny quaver to his voice. Minute movements of the head, a show of anxiety, fear, concern.

Hiruzen stroked his beard. "The Kyūbi couldn't be involved, even a sliver of its chakra would've tipped off your hounds, there must be some other explanation." Hiruzen's voice dropped almost to a whisper. "Perhaps it could be— no, no that's not it. That's impossible, we would know about it. But then perhaps another person could have. No, there would've been at least some sign."

"Sir?" Kakashi sounded hesitant, his one visible eye crinkled in worry.

"Hmm? Oh! Right, thank you Kakashi. Yes, go at once and do not let up on the search until you've found the boy." Kakashi bowed at the waist and turned to leave the office. Hiruzen rapped his knuckles on the desk twice to bring Kakashi's attention back. "You will keep the search Classified Rank-A, only take those who already know on the search with you. The fewer who know about this incident the more secure Naruto will be."

"Only five including myself know of the incident hokage-sama. Tiger is on clean-up. Falcon, Squirrel, and Rabbit are all searching. They know to be discreet."

Hiruzen nodded once. Kakashi remained, uncertain whether to take that as a dismissal. Hiruzen smiled slightly, lopsided, just a quirk of the lips. At least one shinobi understood respect and deference.

Whether the Kyūbi had been involved in fending off the assault wasn't important, at least not now. It would keep Naruto alive as long as possible. That amount of involvement from the beast was certain. Now they just had to find the boy and stabilize him.

If Naruto hadn't come to the tower, that could only mean that he didn't trust Hiruzen enough to seek his aid. The hokage made a mental note to correct that oversight. He considered and reconsidered where Naruto would possibly flee to, determined to find the boy himself.

He turned to face his window again. The scarlet washing over the village was growing darker. If they couldn't find Naruto before sunset, that could pose a serious problem. The village _needed_ him alive.

There weren't many places in the village Naruto would flee to, if he hadn't come to the tower. There were alleyways and training grounds littering the entire village, far more crannies than were tolerable, but Naruto would never feel safe there. Hiruzen scanned the village that lay before him, the festival lanterns beginning to make themselves visible as daylight dwindled. Abandoned buildings? Sewers? Library? School?

Hiruzen discarded every idea. They didn't have the time for this. He looked over to the Hokage Monument, hoping to find inspiration from Naruto's father. He locked his brown eyes to the dead grey of the carving's.

"I believe I know where Naruto is."

Kakashi looked at his leader expectantly, muscles coiled and ready to spring into action.

"You may go Kakashi. Continue the search as a precaution, but I believe I will find Naruto myself."

Kakashi froze for a moment in surprise, the tension in him slowly draining away, before he bowed and hurried from the room. Hiruzen did not waste a moment, disappearing from where he sat the instant Kakashi closed the door. A slight burst of air in the street next to the hokage tower marked his reappearance, startling the crowds milling about near the festival plaza. Ignoring their gawking, he immediately took off running before he disappeared again mid-step. He moved across town faster than most ninja could follow, reappearing and disappearing in bursts of air as he used _shunshin no jutsu_ in rapid sequence.

A minute after Hiruzen left his office, he arrived near the monument, appearing silently in the forest behind it. He ran towards the forest's edge, but slowed as he neared the exit, not wanting to frighten the boy. Of course, that was assuming that he was correct and the boy was here at all. If he wasn't, he would address that problem when he came to it.

The exit from the forest was abrupt and the hokage had to shield his eyes from the direct view of the setting sun. Once his vision adjusted, he saw a silhouette near the edge of the cliff, outlined by the orange glow bathing the rocks. As he closed the distance, he could make out that it was a small blond boy and he felt no small amount of relief flood through him.

However, as the hokage drew closer to the boy he felt something amiss. Naruto was too still, too quiet. He should still have been whimpering or crying, showing some sign of his injuries. Unless he'd already fallen unconscious, which could only bode ill—if adrenaline, fear, and the Kyūbi combined couldn't keep him awake, his injuries had to be near fatal.

Hiruzen sprinted to his side, skidding to a stop and crouching reaction at all. Given a tap and a shake, stillness remained.

He gave the boy a quick once-over, and noticed a pool of blood filling the cavities in the stony face and seeping down in a red waterfall. If Naruto's position on the cliff and the sheer amount of blood were any indication, Minato's stony face would be crying blood soon enough.

 _This is definitely not a good omen._

He'd taken long enough. In a single motion, Hiruzen scooped the bloody boy into his arms and used shunshin to reach a nearby roof. His feet touched ground for only a moment before he burst away again.

Relief washed over him when he saw the hospital ahead. Just in time. He only had enough chakra for perhaps ten more shunshin. With one final explosion of air he appeared outside the hospital's doors and crashed through them.

Hiruzen barely noticed the hospital staff as he flew through the halls. He cursed his unfamiliarity with the hospital, but figured he was headed in the right direction. He had no idea whether it was proper or not, but Hiruzen darted into the first room he found and gently laid Naruto on the bed. The hokage didn't waste a moment, and spun to find and a drag a med-nin over to heal Naruto. Before he could take a step a young woman barreled through the door.

She all but slammed into the old man, only his quick reaction stopped a collision. She recovered admirably.

"Hokage-sama what's going on?"

The hokage inspected the young medic with a glance. Particularly of note was her badge, identifying her as new personnel, barely out of training. Hiruzen sighed in relief at her youth, though there was no guarantee she had the experience to treat Naruto.

"He's been badly wounded. I need you to heal him."

The young woman nodded before moving over to examine the boy. She recognized him immediately—only one person in Konoha had whisker-marked cheeks. His identity did not faze her in the least, though, and she immediately began her treatment.

A green glow engulfed the med-nin's hands, a preliminary diagnostic jutsu. She swept her hands over the boy's small frame, eyes closed so as to see the results more clearly. In a short time she flinched painfully, the green glow flickering. When she finally got a look at her patient she stumbled back a step and threw her head to the side, retching.

Hiruzen watched impassively as the woman wiped her mouth and returned to work, doing her best to avoid looking at the boy. It was rather grotesque, he had to admit. Most bodies burnt that badly were charred corpses. For someone to still be alive with all of their skin, except for that above the neck, burned away shouldn't have been possible. Ah, the power of a Jinchūriki.

The medic girl began to pant slightly as she did her best to heal the boy. Before Hiruzen could get a second medic to take over for her, she pulled away, wiping the sweat from her brow.

"I've done all I can hokage-sama, his chakra is too depleted to withstand the strain of medical ninjutsu. I'll bandage the wounds and give him an antibiotic, then all he'll need is rest."

The aged village leader smiled warmly at the young woman. A serious medical professional at quite the young age. An assumption, but a safe one. He'd had to heal Naruto himself a few times, as a good number of doctors would outright refuse him treatment.

It hadn't started that way, but things had gone farther and farther. And the bastards could get away with it because he needed them, and they knew it. If at some point things changed, he had _quite_ the list. But it was only a dream. At least there was someone skilled who hadn't been swept up in the fervor.

"Miss, what is your name? If you don't mind me asking, of course."

Her eyes went wide. "Uh, ah… Nadare."

"Well, Nadare, you have my most sincere gratitude for taking care of Naruto. I know he appreciates it, even if he can't quite tell you himself."

"Thank you hokage-sama." She said, bowing deeply.

Yes, she would do nicely. It seemed she was possessed whatever faculty it took, rationality or reason or stoicism or whatever it may be, to resist the seemingly persuasive argument against Naruto. He needed a doctor who would treat Naruto on hand. A significant oversight, now that he thought it over. This novel political situation would require quite a few personnel and security changes surrounding Naruto. People more reliable, people more loyal to the village than to their beliefs.

As Nadare went about completing the civilian treatment of Naruto, the hokage pulled a chair from the nearby table, setting it next to the bed. The woman heard the noise and shot the hokage a questioning look.

"I'll stay until he wakes. It would do him good to see a friendly face."

She nodded in understanding before finishing her treatment and heading for the door. When it closed behind her Hiruzen bit his thumb and grimaced before slamming his hand into the ground. In small puff of smoke a monkey no larger than a pug appeared.

"Medata, can you take a message to Anbu Headquarters?" The little monkey nodded its head.

"Good. Find Dog and tell him that Naruto has been found and that he is safe. The search is over, but they need to take the witnesses to T&I for memory erasure. That includes all ANBU," Hiruzen paused, considering loyalties, "except Dog. I see great things in that boy's future."

With another nod the monkey scuttled over to the room's window and dashed out, leaving it open in its wake. Hiruzen, with his subordinate gone and the room finally empty and quiet succumbed to exhaustion from his intense chakra usage and fell into blissful sleep.

* * *

 **This is to be a complete reinterpretation of canon, just so you guys know. Everything will be changed, from history to tailed beasts to politics to characters and the functioning of jutsu. This is an AU overhaul.**

 **I may have gone overboard by trying to avoid scene breaks, but I wanted the introduction to flow. I tried an oddity, changing perspective as the characters switched between Danzō and Hiruzen without a scene break. Let me know if it didn't work for you.**

 **It is also important to know that I consider** _ **Naruto**_ **to have jumped the shark shortly after the time skip. There are certainly still good ideas and characters introduced after that point, but as a whole the manga decayed and I'd prefer to ignore or reinterpret many aspects of it.**

 **For most fanfiction, everything is "like canon unless noted." This is true here very seldom, and quite often if something seems to be a deviation from canon, as it is not explicit, it is in fact intentional. Not always, but it should be seldom enough that I'd prefer a PM about these problems instead of a review. Then I can clear up misconceptions personally.**

 **In the future, if there's anything very pertinent in an A/N I'll bold it. Everything else will be in plain text. I enjoy getting to know an author better if I like their story, so I have no problems with thoughtful A/Ns, but not everyone agrees. I do consider this introduction to the story to be pertinent, but no other A/N should be this long and other bolded sections should never be more than a paragraph.**

Some of you may be nitpickers, so I'll point out some subtle changes. Keep in mind that I'm certainly not perfect, but I _do_ keep an eye out for continuity and subtle differences.

Take Danzō for example. He has a sling in canon, always. I wrote "wrapping his fingers around his thumb _ **s.**_ " Not a mistake, he simply doesn't have the sling at this juncture. Do try not to make assumptions. I mention the council as a major plot point—I'll expand on it, and it is a _legitimate and serious political force_ , not a political farce loaded with caricatures.

I'm going to spell out one thing here, for now, thematically. For those interested. In _Naruto_ , the theme of hard work overcoming genius is overturned and mutilated and discarded. I want to revive this theme as it should have been: _everyone has their gifts, make the most of yours_. Naruto in this story has three primary boons: bloodlines, chakra reserves, and Kyuubi. His bloodlines suit him for taijutsu, his chakra reserves for ninjutsu, the Kyuubi for [redacted].


	2. Chapter 2: Screams

**Blood Ties**

 **Chapter Two: Screams**

Naruto woke with a start, a scream rising in the back of his throat. His mouth opened, a soundless cavern, a pressure building in his chest as the repressed sound of terror and pain struggled to release. His scream died as a whimper, overtaken by a chest-rattling cough. A thick coppery mucus filled his mouth, and red droplets stained the immaculate white coverlet.

A cold fear, rising from a dark well of memory, lost in the light of the new day, swelled through his battered body. Briefly, a crimson flare washed over his vision, deeper than blood and more furious than wildfire. Darkness followed, a sudden amnesia of his past and his present, an irresistible impulse to flee from here. From wherever was here, whoever was here, to the only safe place.

When he tried to rise, Naruto could feel skin all across his body tear and ripple, burning with the heat of a forge-fire. Another scream stifled, another gurgling cough, and bloody sputum dripped down his chin staining his shirt. But it wasn't his shirt.

 _What?_ Was all Naruto's young mind could manage to think.

He had felt pain before, intense blinding pain, but nothing like this. He could not understand why, but most injuries, no matter how terrible and crippling, healed on their own. He needed only to make it to his room at the orphanage, crawl and curl into his secret place, and wait. If in silence, a stifling quiet so absolute not even the matron would dare disturb it, things would soon be alright. The red glow would fix things, it always did.

But this was not his clothing he wore. He could not yet see clearly, his vision all crimson, blackness, and spots of blinding white, but he could feel it. He smelled the air, but his nose was full of other scents, overpowering. Smoke, roasted meat, blood, the tang of metal, acrid sweat and hidden behind that, fear, pain, anger, hate. He snorted to try and clear it away, and more bloody mucus flooded his mouth, his sinuses, his nose, replacing all smell and taste with coppery blood.

 _I can't remember._ Something terrible had happened yesterday, but he could not seem to bring it back. He was not sure he wanted to.

Despite all this, Naruto could hear, even more clearly than usual. So he listened. The gentle chirp of birds and the rustle of leaves drifted to him, the laughter of a child, the deep, bass rumble of a dog's bark. Above all, the clear resonant tones of a bell, chiming three times in an even rhythm, just like the one at the orphanage.

As if roused by the bell, there followed a guttural snore, like the rough tearing of fabric. The sound wakened something, pulled on a loose thread in Naruto's mind, and the pall over his senses unraveled like some tattered rag. His paralysis drifted away, and the immobilizing pain flared then dulled. As though it were present yet something, somewhere sunken deep within himself, had elected to ignore it.

He turned to find the noise and found the kind old man, his not-grandfather, slumped over in a chair. He snored again, like the frustrated grumbling of an old bear having felt a salmon wriggle free from its jaws.

Naruto started to smile, but the quirk of his lips felt like it was tearing his face in two, like his mouth had overnight grown to span ear to ear. He had never seen the old man asleep before, until now he had seemed less like a man and more like some wrinkled guardian angel, his funny hat a friendlier sort of halo. The old man's chest moved with gentle depth, opening and closing. His head hung at an unnatural angle, his jaw loose and his body twisted trying to face all directions at once. An echo formed in Naruto's mind, words of the old man from some time ago, from the last he had seen him.

"I know it is hard Naruto, but it is not forever. Do well to remember, the sleep of exhaustion finds comfort from within. Every ninja knows this. There will be times where you will be lost, hurt, alone. Close your eyes, rest your head, and remember me, remember your parents, remember the warmth we shared with you, brief as it may have been. This is your blanket in times cold. When things are difficult, and seem impossible, never give up. This is your mattress, and so long as you believe in your strength it will always be with you."

The words, it seems, had not been invented for him.

As he had a hundred times since first hearing them, Naruto repeated the words again. Mouth moving through the syllables, slowing working over every sound and shape as if feeling it for the first time, he traced the well-worn groove in his memory the mantra had claimed. The shapes, as he repeated them again, seemed to leave something behind in the air, little peaceful spirits flittering all around him. The very real bed beneath him, the blanket swathing him felt no longer foreign and frightening. He repeated the words again. The world seemed to warm and smooth before him, and his surroundings became suddenly clear.

The smell was of white tile and a clean beyond clean, of fresh laundry and a still air, fresh but stagnant. He was in the hospital.

Feeling more himself Naruto, tried to sit still, to be patient and wait for the old man to wake up. Tension began to build, with nothing to release it. His thoughts clattered away, trapped in a loop repeated endlessly.

"Bored." Naruto muttered quietly. He looked around the room for anything to occupy his frantic mind.

 _Patience is a weapon, like any other in a ninja's arsenal. A sword swung eagerly will strike only air._

There was nothing. There were books he could not read, pictures and paintings he could not understand, buttons he could not press, a shining day full of the relaxed, mature life of early fall, the smells of turning foliage, fresh fall air cleared at last of the smoke of the summer fires, drifting sleepily across to him like a taunt of the spaces he could not go explore.

But the hokage was sitting soundly asleep, perfectly vulnerable.

 _Always remember restraint, without it a Ninja is a sword with no sheath. Borne recklessly it becomes a danger to its wielder, its allies. Even the sword itself suffers; placed at the mercy of the elements it will find itself quickly worn away._

The stillness was growing, and the restless pressure in Naruto was grown ready to burst. A knock at the door deflated his eagerness instantly. The sweat, the closing vision returned, and Naruto latched his vision onto Hiruzen to keep his balance. There was a second knock, and this time Naruto listened to its emotion, the contours of its sound. It was a gentle knock, hesitant, concerned, four quiet little taps, like the padding of a cat across a hardwood floor.

"Good morning Naruto-kun," a gentle female voice gestured from beyond the closed door. "May I come in?"

Gentler even than the knock, full of the warmth of a loving embrace, and young, the smooth voice calmed Naruto. He tried to speak but found not even a rasp or a cough waiting in his chest. Tightness gripped his throat, an anxious paralysis.

"Come in Nadare."

Naruto turned in surprise to the old man, whose comforting, worn bass had filled the room. Rigidly perfect posture, eyes sharply alert, hands clasped loosely, at ease yet also prepared to leap into movement, it was as though he had not been asleep just moments before. And just maybe, he hadn't been.

"How are you feeling today Naruto?"

Naruto turned to see a slender young nurse, dressed in the deep forest green of med-nin scrubs, solid in color but for the tight sleeves whirling in a pattern of red and gold leaves. Her hair was pinned up in a bun by a pair of vibrant metal orchids, purple blossom and twined stems true in color standing bright against her pale golden hair. Her eyes were the blue of a summer sky, and as inviting and gentle. Something about them struck Naruto as odd, but he could not place it. Few enough people ever met his eyes, and he rarely even saw his own.

He very nearly shouted his usual "fine," but something stopped even the attempt. He knew something was different this time than any other before, no amount of playing the fool or acting the iron-willed would change that. After a tense silence he tried to mutter something simple, something like "better" or "ok, I guess." All that he managed to squeeze from his raw, paralyzed throat was a whimper.

"Oh, Naruto" Nadare muttered, a sadness creeping into her eyes. She glided towards him across the floor, gentle like a summer breeze, and knelt beside his bed bringing her face close to his.

"I'm sure you're a little confused and hurt right now. Don't try to talk yet. Yesterday somebody hurt you very badly," she glanced hesitantly to the hokage, who offered a slight nod. "It seems he may have hurt you in some ways I wasn't able to see earlier. Is it alright if I use a medical jutsu to help?"

Nadare held up one glowing green hand, the color matching and flowing with that of her scrubs. Naruto instinctively shied away, pressing himself deeper into the pillows, tugging futilely on the tightly tucked covers.

"It's ok Naruto, Nadare is here to help. She helped me when I brought you here last night, she healed as many of your hurts as she could." His eyes met Nadare's and then turned to Naruto's, sadder than he had ever seen them. "I promise, Naruto, she wants only to make you better."

Naruto swallowed deeply. The unexpected pain in his throat brought a grimace to his face, tightening his small back and shoulders, and so he nodded. Nadare pressed her hand slowly against his throat, as a woodsman would approach a cautious wild deer. A warmth began to pulse through Naruto's body, flowing from the soft hand on his throat. The pain diminished and then disappeared entirely, and the tight paralysis locking his vocal cords seemed to lift.

"I think I'm ok now," Naruto murmured. Nadare pulled her hand away, the glow fading, with a sad smile.

"I think so too Naruto. It's good to hear you."

The old man waited a moment, curious gaze locked onto Naruto. Not quite on him, actually, but somehow through him, beyond his physical body to the very essence of Naruto lurking within. Then slowly, deliberately, like one of Konoha's Kyojin trees had at long last remembered how to move, he stood and moved to the bedside. He rested a hand on Naruto's shoulder, gripping it protectively. Tension poured out of Naruto's body, and he realized how afraid he had been.

"I am happy to see you awake and talking, Naruto. You gave us a scare last night." Naruto shifted nervously on the bed. "Truthfully, how do you feel?"

"I'm," Naruto paused, eyes closed. "I'm ok now, jiji. Nadare did a great job!" Naruto tried to summon up his usual enthusiasm but found his boundless well of energy strangely inaccessible.

"Yes. Yes, she did. But still, you are hurting Naruto. Not just in your body, but in your head, and in your heart." Hiruzen gestured to each place as he spoke of it. "And those latter two hurts, their healing takes more time than bodily hurts ever will."

Hiruzen's sad smile seemed to ripple through Naruto, and he could feel tears begin to well up. He pulled them back, wanting to show resolve for the old man, but a wet hiccough escaped him, a sound just shy of a sob.

"It's," Naruto tried to force more words out, but none came. They tried to bubble up, but each rising set off a cascade of echoes. Sounds rose one over the other: screams, mad sorrowful laughter, the crackling of wood burning, the rush of blood. Such noise that Naruto screwed shut his eyes and threw himself back to the bed.

Hiruzen's hand found its way back to Naruto's shoulder, even burrowed as he was. "Not yet Naruto, the wound is still too fresh. But when you are ready to remember, when you are ready to talk, always know that I am here."

Hiruzen looked away from Naruto, locking eyes with Nadare. Silence grew in the room. She nervously shuffled her feet and held Hiruzen's gaze as long as she could manage. With a sudden start, she broke the line connecting their eyes and still kneeling, shuffled along the bed to Naruto.

"I'll be here for you too, Naruto. Now, I now you're still hurting. Let's see what else we can do to make you feel a bit better."

Naruto could feel the warmth radiating from Nadare, and when he unfurled to look at her he was greeted by a glistening smile. He relaxed and allowed Nadare to go about her work. Hiruzen faded away into the background of the room, watching the young nurse work and grinding the events of the previous night through his machine of a mind.

It took quite some time for Nadare to feel satisfied with Naruto's injuries. She talked about fragile chakra, and the need to allow natural healing to occur, after running the full gamut of diagnostics. After re-binding all of Naruto's wounds, she ran through one last diagnostic jutsu, something usually skipped on Naruto as the effects of his passenger rendered it typically worthless.

"Hokage-sama, there's seems to be a little something unusual with Naruto's chakra."

Naruto, until then still and silent, his vacant eyes locked to something far from the hospital room, came back to life. A worry rippled through him, that the nurse had discovered his secret, the red chakra that came and went whenever he was scared or hurt.

Hiruzen dropped away from his silent vigil, back to Naruto. "What something, Nadare?"

Nadare glanced down at Naruto. "I'll need to run a quick little test, ok Naruto? I'm going to put some of my chakra in with yours. It might feel a little bit funny, but don't worry, it's just to help you, okay?"

Naruto looked over to Hiruzen. The old man nodded his approval, but Naruto was still shaken. The crimson blank in his memory from the night before, the rush of emotions and the searing pain were too present. He shied away from Nadare's hands, glowing a darker green than before, darker than any natural green. An invasive green, a violent green, it flickered and flared, a fire seeming to wreath those hands as they reached slowly towards him.

Naruto let out a whimper and instinctively crept further away, pressed hard into the corner of the bed. The jutsu dropped instantly from Nadare's hands. Remorse trickled from her eyes not quite as tears, but as their shadows, something withheld.

"Naruto, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you, and I would _never_ hurt you."

Her gentle voice brought Naruto back to reality. He gasped a breath, suddenly becoming aware he had been holding it for well over a minute. It was the crimson void, just a glimpse of the fire-like shape and he was cast back into it. It was reflexive, a drowning terror—once begun it cannot be escaped alone.

"It's ok." He whispered.

"We still need to do the test Naruto," Hiruzen rumbled gently. "Chakra disturbances are a very serious matter. If left alone, they can permanently upset chakra flow. All hope of becoming a ninja would be lost."

Even at the best of times, Naruto had difficulty understanding the exact words of the hokage. The man spoke to him like any other person, if perhaps a bit more simply and clearly. It was a dearly cherished gift to Naruto, to be treated not even as a normal child, but as a full person. When the hokage spoke and he understood little, he simply worked it out as best he could. At times like these, Hiruzen's tone and body language conveyed more to Naruto than his complex phrasings and educated words.

And these said to him, now, "Trust in Nadare. If you want to be a ninja, you will have to feel worse and still act as a ninja."

"Yes, jiji."

"Naruto, why don't we try something. Seeing the jutsu is what scares you, right?"

Naruto nodded, hesitantly, still not entirely sure himself.

"Alright, then when you feel ready close your eyes."

Hiruzen cleared his throat. "If it helps, just remember that I'll be right here Naruto. I would never allow something bad to happen to you, so long as it is within my power."

Naruto nodded once more and, almost defiant, closed his eyes. When Nadare began her jutsu Naruto _knew_ ; he could feel a change in the air. No, not quite the air, in the atmosphere, in the feel of the room. It was something curious, probing, but also warm and inviting. Naruto relaxed, opening himself to the warmth, letting it flow into him.

He felt Nadare's hands, soft and kind, one on his head and one on his heart. With a pulse, the warmth within him increased tenfold, and seeped through his body, flowing alongside his own chakra, until it had passed through his entire being. A small gasp abruptly ended the warmth, and Naruto opened his eyes in no small worry.

"Hokage-sama! This is unprecedented!" Nadare's shout was more shocked than worried. In an instant, though, her tone quietened and softened to a downy murmur. "The irregularity is clear, the chakra in his bones, all of them, is wildly erratic. It is changing his pathways, changing the very structure of his skeleton, bit by bit."

Hiruzen's eyes met hers before shifting to Naruto, whose worry was obvious and growing. Had she noticed the red chakra?

"A kekkei genkai."

"Very likely, sir."

Hiruzen's nod was solemn. When Naruto looked in his eyes he saw a thoughtfulness, a confusion, and something he'd never seen before. An intense look, almost angry, and perhaps in part, cruel.

"I'll look into it. The chakra flux is in his bones? And none elsewhere?"

"No sir, not that I can tell. But his chakra as a whole is stirred and erratic. Naruto has been under immense strain recently, and his body is trying to recover and adapt. It isn't helped either by the—" Nadare paused, searching for the right word. There was something she wouldn't say, and Naruto saw her glance at him as she thought.

"Yes, Nadare, that's enough. Thank you." Hiruzen gazed hard at Nadare, another gaze Naruto hadn't seen before. It began to dawn on him that perhaps his grandfather was more than he seemed. It snapped away outside the window and then quickly down to Naruto, softened and kind.

"Naruto, have you heard of kekkei genkai before?"

Naruto shook his head weakly. "No jiji. What's that?"

"It is a bloodline limit. We do not know where exactly they come from, but that is not important now. These are special changes that are inherited by birth, passed down from mother and father to child, though not always. Those who possess such things often have unique and incredible powers. Strange chakras and special bodies that cannot be gained through training. They make exceptional ninja."

"I don't get it." Naruto was overwhelmed. He looked to Hiruzen for help, but there was only frustration in those brown eyes. He turned to Nadare, who seemed to be stifling laughter.

"Hokage-sama, I know you want to treat Naruto like anyone else, but he is only six."

"Hey! I can too understand!" Naruto slammed his fists weakly onto his bed with two quiet whumps.

Hiruzen smiled. "Naruto, it's nothing to be ashamed of. As your body grows so too does your knowledge and your wisdom. I am old, and I forget that at times how I speak, how I think is as an old man. The words and thoughts of an old man are not those of a boy, and sometimes a barrier may rise between them." He chuckled gently to himself. "I am too old now to build a gate, and I lost my ladder many years ago. We just need someone else to give you a boost over the wall."

Nadare settled on the bed next to Naruto, careful to keep space between them. "A kekkei genkai is a special ability you get from your parents, Naruto. It is in your blood, a tie to your family."

"Family?" Naruto tested the word, a concept that had always been for someone else. Hiruzen was like a grandfather to him, but Naruto knew it was not a true relationship. Not something in the blood.

"That's right. I know you don't have a family now, Naruto. But they still live in you, and given time, that connection will grow. A kekkei genkai is a special connection to family, stronger than normal blood." Nadare smiled, winking at Naruto. "I know because I have one too."

"You do?" Naruto squinted as he looked Nadare over, from foot to scalp. "You don't look special."

A twinkle appeared in Nadare's eye. "Most kekkei genkai are not so obvious, it's how we bloodline families can be ninja. Do you want me to show you?"

Naruto's eager nod couldn't be contained, and his whole body wiggled on the bed. Nadare chuckled.

She placed a hand on Naruto's forehead, and the familiar warmth started up again, though nowhere but deep in his head. Without warning, the world shifted, and Naruto was seeing the world through another set of eyes.

It was a beautiful spring day in a flower garden, and he was filled with a serene happiness he'd never felt. Overhead clouds wandered like grazing sheep, aimless and at peace. A tinkling laughter caught his attention, and his vision moved, though Naruto was not the one who moved it. Across a flower bed given to the wild, two young people rested in the shade of a tree. Their hair was a platinum blond. Their eyes, though he could not see them, he knew to be a pale blue so pure it colored the pupil just the same. They waved, and Naruto bounded through the flowers, hands caressing as many as he could on his way. The woman leapt up towards him and, just as she enveloped him in a hug, the real world cast the image away.

"Woah! What was that?" Naruto's heart was racing, the emotions of the vision still coursing through him.

"My family's special talent lies in our brain." Nadare pointed to her head. "We can use chakra to connect minds together, to share our own memories, and to experience the memories of others. As well as other things. Secret things." She winked at Naruto.

"Do I get secrets too?"

Hiruzen joined Nadare by Naruto's side, pressing one hand firmly on the boy's shoulder.

"You already have one Naruto. Do you remember what I told you about deception?"

"Stealth is but a tool, a cloak a ninja wears as needed, deception is the art of the ninja. Deceive an enemy and there is no need to hide. Deceive an enemy, and the weapon that would have been cast aside, stolen away, may strike at his heart."

"That's right, and the greatest weapon of all is a kekkei genkai. Bloodline families keep as many secrets as they can manage, and they would conceal their very bloodlines if they could. Some do, in fact, from all but a select few. You have a valuable secret Naruto, only three people in the whole world know about it. There is a saying that, if perhaps a little emphatic, still strikes its point. Three may keep a secret when two of them are dead."

Naruto's eyes went wide at the last. Though he had not understood much of what the Hokage said, he could understand the last quote.

"But there's three of us here!"

The hokage chuckled. "The quote has more to do with trust than secrets, Naruto. I am the keeper of a great many secrets, and though yours is one of the most important, I have had much practice. Nadare has saved your life when many would not. Do you think she's earned our trust?"

Naruto looked Nadare up and down. She was stony faced, and Naruto could tell she was tense, anxious. What the hokage said had worried her, that she might not be trusted to keep the secret. As though the old man would have to do something to ensure she couldn't spread it. Naruto cast that thought away; the old man was too kind, too generous, he could never do something like that to someone as sweet as Nadare.

"Of course!" Naruto grinned widely, but the pain in his face returned, and it quickly faded. "She found out about it, right? She should get to help!"

Hiruzen shook his head, on the cusp of saying something more, but he refrained. Naruto was curious, but the old man did this to him all the time. It probably meant he was too young. The old man was right, of course, but it still hurt a little bit.

"In any case, Naruto, I think we're all finished up here." Nadare stroked his hair gently, before standing up. "I have other patients I need to go see, but if you ever need help know that I'll be here."

Hiruzen grabbed her arm before she could leave and whispered something to her Naruto could not quite hear. As Nadare left her face was clouded, a thunderstorm having moved across her summer features. It was a look Naruto never hoped to see again, something frightening and wrong.

"How do you feel about getting out of here Naruto?"

"Yes!" Naruto jumped out of bed. The sudden pain brought him tumbling back into it, but the little smile on his face didn't fade.

"Had enough of the hospital, eh? Well, let's go." Hiruzen held out a hand. "Just be careful, Naruto. You're feeling a bit better, but you're still quite hurt."

Naruto took it, and they began the slow walk out of the hospital. The hokage started a long, meandering monologue, his voice seeming as always to somehow soothe Naruto's nerves and even his pain. What he said, Naruto couldn't understand, but it didn't matter. It never did seem to matter, it was the talking and not the words that made the difference.

Out on the street, Naruto found himself feeling suddenly lost. It was later than he had thought, the sun starting to sink below the high roofs of Konoha. Dusk was settling in comfortably to a town ready for it. He had walked this part of town many times, skulked around it many more than that. And yet now everything seemed somehow different. Strange, confusing, hostile, a tangle of streets and solid walls of buildings closing on him like the jaws of a trap. He squeezed Hiruzen's hand unconsciously, looking for comfort.

They kept walking for some time in silence, Naruto unsure where they were going. This is usually when they went back to the orphanage, but after what happened (whatever that was, Naruto still could not remember) the hokage would not want him to go back there.

After they turned a corner, Naruto saw a warmly lit food stand, nestled at the bottom of a rather dingy little building, towered over by the newer, tottering construction all around. It was right at the edge of an alley, and he could see from the street an older man, dressed all in white, smoking a pipe as he rested in a battered wicker chair.

Naruto could not take his eyes off it. It had been weeks since he had last had a hot meal. At the orphanage, his food always came, but it always came cold.

"You hungry Naruto?"

The blond stood in silent contemplation for a moment before his stomach growled loudly. The hokage chuckled.

"You like the look of this place then?"

"It seems nice. But, um," Naruto hesitated. "Will they let me eat? A lotta places kick me out." He looked at his feet, shuffling them. Although it was never his fault, and it confused him more than anything, it still hurt to admit that to the old man.

Hiruzen frowned. "If I'm with you Naruto you have nothing to worry about. If you want to eat there, they will serve you."

The old man's tone indicated a finality. In any case, the place _did_ seem nice to Naruto, and even if he couldn't read the name or what kind of food they had it didn't matter. Naruto had yet to meet a food he could not enjoy.

The entry was a cloth curtain, already mostly parted. Hiruzen pushed the last bit aside and guided Naruto in to a seat. It was empty, though there was not much seating in any case. It was little more than a counter with stools. Naruto seated himself in the middle and found that he could barely even climb up onto the stool. It was frustrating, having spent most of the day in bed yet still feeling exhausted.

A young woman, dressed in the same whites as the old man outside, heard them as they settled onto the counter. Her back was turned, likely cooking up some of whatever they served here.

"Welcome to Ichiraku Ramen!" She kept stirring her pot. "I'll be with you in just a minute!"

They waited patiently, in silence. There was a holder for napkins and chopsticks sitting on the counter, tarnished steel and slightly battered. Naruto grabbed a pair and started fiddling. He had never been shown how to use them properly and hadn't yet figured it out for himself. The hokage silently took up his own pair and showed Naruto the proper hold.

A high squeak interrupted the lesson. "Oh! H-Hokage-sama! Uh… welcome! Uh… uh…" The girl behind the counter nervously kneaded her apron, stuttering. The hokage chuckled and smiled warmly to her.

"I'll have a miso ramen." He looked over at Naruto who was fiddling with the chopsticks. He wasn't finding much success in trying to pick up a third with his two.

"How about you, Naruto? Anything particular you want tonight?"

Naruto seemed to ignore the question. For a moment he seemed about to succeed with his chopsticks, he held the third for a moment before all three clattered to the tabletop. He blew out his breath in frustration and grumbled a bit. He finally looked up to the girl behind the bar and met her eyes for only a moment before looking away.

"I've never had ramen before. I don't know what to get." Naruto mumbled.

"Never had ramen! Well, then there's only one thing to get you. Shōyu it is!" The girl behind the counter grinned and gesture grandiosely. She seemed to realize the hokage was there a moment later and glanced away from the pair. "I mean, Shōyu is the most classic ramen, it's a great way to try it. Is that alright Hokage-sama?"

"Naruto?" Naruto kept his head down but nodded. "Well, then that sounds perfect, miss."

The girl nodded and yelled the order as she walked into the kitchen. Not a moment after she went through the door, an older man came out, apron stained here and there a pale yellow. The same man from the alley, smelling still of sweet tobacco smoke.

"Welcome to my humble establishment hokage-sama." He said with a bow. "My name is Ichiraku Teuchi. The food will be ready shortly, I just wanted to come apologize for my daughter's rudeness. She's young, but she should know better. Ayame is her name, as I'm sure she forgot to tell you."

The hokage just smiled and laughed. "It's perfectly alright Teuchi-san. It's not every day the hokage visits your family's restaurant."

Teuchi nodded in thanks. A yell from his daughter prompted his return to the kitchen, and he left saying he'd be back shortly.

By the time the food emerged Naruto had overcome his anxiety, his growling stomach taking total control. He looked to the old man in the apron and received a warm smile.

"Here you are, son. The best ramen in the Elemental Nations! You'll be spoiled for it forever after," The man's booming voice faded into riotous laughter, so infectious even Naruto cracked a chuckle.

Naruto looked from the food to the man and back again. When the smell hit his nose, he couldn't repress his voracious grin. He tried out his chopsticks once more, and suddenly seized by the warmth and cheer of Teuchi and his stand he decided to try a spin trick. Once, twice around his little fingers, and it clattered to the counter. Naruto winced and looked away.

"Hey, that was pretty good. You looking to be a ninja when you get older?"

Naruto looked to Teuchi with an embarrassed blush, but it quickly vanished. He was confused. The old man had not just allowed him into his restaurant and made him food, but here he was, treating him like some normal person. Like he could somehow not know what everyone else seemed to. Or he could not care, but that seemed impossible to Naruto. Everyone else cared quite a lot about whatever this secret was.

Naruto looked to Hiruzen, uncertain of everything now. The hokage did nothing but smile slyly, tilting his head towards the old ramen cook.

"I think so. Jiji keeps telling me I'm not ready, but I am!"

"I'm sure you are, son, but there's a reason you have to be ten to enter the ninja academy." He leaned closer to Naruto, peering into his blue eyes, "You don't look ten yet to me."

"But I've gotta start, so I can take the old man's hat! I'm gonna be the best hokage ever!" Naruto jumped to his feet, balanced on his seat, finger extended right to Hiruzen's hat. With one hand on his hip, an unconscious mannerism, he seemed so sure of himself.

Teuchi and Hiruzen both chuckled at his exclamation. The hokage set his chopsticks down. "Naruto, you know it's not so easy as simply being the best ninja in Konoha. And to be the _best_ hokage, well, I'll have to be sure to show you all that the Shodai and Nidaime did in their time. That bar is something I could never have hoped to pass, though I'm still trying even now." Hiruzen's smile was deeply honest, wry, cynical, full of regret and resignation.

Naruto titled his head to the side in confusion. Before the hokage had a chance to elaborate, girlish squealing erupted.

"So cute!" Before Naruto knew what happened Teuchi's daughter had come around the counter and engulfed him in a hug.

"Ow! Let go!" He squirmed free from her grasp, wincing in pain and rubbing the arm she had squeezed to her chest. He looked to the old man, clutching his robes for protection.

"Oh, you're hurt! I'm sorry!" Ayame said, eyes wide from surprise and shining with sorrow. In a rush she darted to his side, and almost hugged him again, stopped by burrowing into Hiruzen. She winced and bent down, repentance in her eyes.

"Ayame, don't scare the customers."

The brunette girl pouted. "I didn't mean to hurt him!

"That's not what I meant. You can't just go out and hug customers." His face was stern, gaze hard and jaw locked.

"Aw, but he's so cute! I can't help it!"

"Just get back behind the counter." Teuchi's gaze and tone suggested there would be a serious talk, later. "Naruto, it's safe to get back in your seat."

Naruto still clung to Hiruzen's robes, muscles tensed and ready to spring into retreat at any moment. "Promise?"

"I promise. I won't let her out no matter what."

"Hey! Dad!" She pouted, but only received a stern gaze.

"It's your own fault. You can't just latch onto customers for acting cute."

Naruto's face grew increasingly red as the conversation went on. He looked down to try and hide some of it as he shuffled back to his seat. Sliding onto it, he picked up his chopsticks to finally dig in, ignoring whatever everyone around him was doing. It was just too overwhelming.

With the first noodles hanging in the air, broth splashing back down into the bowl, he gazed at them in interest. This didn't look particularly special, it was just noodles. Still, it was food, and he was too hungry to worry about that, so he shoved them in his mouth, only chewing enough to be able to swallow. They were good. As he chewed he changed his mind. Better than good.

It took him a few moments to get a rhythm going, but once he found one his food was gone in a matter of minutes. Before he knew it, the first bowl was empty and he dragged the second closer, emptying it even more quickly.

"Could I have some more, I'm still hungry…" Naruto looked up to the old ramen man, who was standing still, his mouth slightly agape. The hokage's voice to the side turned Naruto's head.

"Of course, Naruto. You can have as much as you want."

Naruto smiled hugely. There was a menu in front of him, and though he couldn't read any of the words, the pictures served. Even better for Naruto, each picture was mouthwatering in its detail, every dish looking better than anything he'd ever eaten.

"Ok! I want one of everything!" The man blinked several times before responding.

"Are you sure? That's quite a lot of food, son."

Hiruzen waved the concerns away. "If Naruto doesn't finish, I'd bet he'd be happy to take some home. Isn't that right?"

Naruto nodded enthusiastically. He was feeling confident, happy. Something this morning he could hardly imagine ever feeling again. He tried twirling his chopsticks around his fingers, and this time, though they wobbled and stuttered, there was no clattering to the countertop. The first bowl arrived, Tonkotsu Teuchi called it, and Naruto slurped it down. So quick he could barely taste it, could barely feel the pork, noodles, and broth skim across his tongue before disappearing into his stomach. He was eager and waiting for the next bowl well before it was ready.

Naruto slurped, gulped, and wolfed down the next six bowls of ramen. By the end, his shirt from the hospital was stained yellow almost down to his chest. He could almost feel the bits of needle clinging to his cheeks, and broth dripping down his chin. When he finally looked up from his feasting, preparing for the eighth and final bowl, he caught Ayame's eyes. She looked disgusted.

Naruto shrunk back in his seat. Something on his face seemed to worry her and Ayame smiled, weakly. "Naruto, didn't anyone ever teach you to eat like a person? It's like a wild animal got into the soup pot!"

"I'm sorry, Ayame-san, I'm just really hungry." He wiped his mouth on his sleeve and gave her his best smile. It was weak and wobbly, still pained from his injuries. Naruto could feel the essential part of a convincing smile absent. He'd learned through long practice, it's all in the eyes. There was pain, and sadness in his and they would not leave him be. Not today.

Ayame pulled a cloth napkin from the counter, where Naruto had ignored its very existence, and wiped his chin. She was gentle, calm and seemed a bit sad.

"Naruto, we've got napkins for a reason, don't wipe your face on your shirt." She wiped the counter down with afterwards, and Naruto blushed at the sea of broth she cleared away. "And you want to be more careful when you eat ramen. If you don't lift the noodles slowly you'll splash everywhere!"

"Yes Ayame." Naruto said, keeping his head down. Ayame looked up to her father, lost as to what to do. She wasn't much older than him, only just in her teens. Teuchi only smiled and laid a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"So Naruto, how do you feel about ramen?" The hokage asked, breaking the silence. His bowl was long empty and cleared away, and he sat comfortably straight, radiating welcoming warmth.

Naruto responded immediately, mustering what warmth and energy he could. "It was the best food I ever ate! Thanks jiji, ramen-chef-guy."

His voice was only filled with slight enthusiasm, but it was enough to convey the sincerity of the claim. Both older men smiled, but Teuchi smiled wider. It wasn't often his ramen was complimented.

"I'm glad you liked it. You're welcome back anytime, and if you always eat so much, I'll even give you a discount!"

This was the most blissful surprise Naruto had ever received in his young life. It was so perfect he wouldn't have believed it if the hokage wasn't there. He slid off the stool at the counter, looking to his favorite old man. Sandals hit the hard ground with a thud. A stroll over to the old man brought a smile shining down from behind the counter.

"Hey, if we're gonna have a new best customer we're gonna need to know his name."

"Don't you already know my name," Naruto asked. "Everybody else does."

Teuchi's mouth quirked upward. He mindlessly wrung the cloth apron in his hands, kneading it like dough.

"Well, yes, we do Naruto. I just wanted to treat you like anybody else who came into my restaurant for the first time."

Naruto looked up. It couldn't be right, Teuchi knew the secret everybody else did, but didn't care. He was the first one, the only adult to really treat him like a normal person. Like a full human. There was Nadare, and Hikari, of course, but they weren't normal village people. They were the hokage's people. Friends of the old man were friends of Naruto, of course. Naruto did not know why, hadn't given it any thought, but it felt right for it to be. And so he accepted it as fact.

"Ah, I'm Uzumaki Naruto." He said.

"It's nice to meet you Naruto. I'm Teuchi, and my daughter in the back washing dishes is Ayame."

Naruto opened his mouth to speak again but was interrupted by a long yawn. He felt like he'd been run over by a cart. His pain and tiredness returning from their brief respite. The old man seemed to notice and stood from his chair, carefully laying money on the counter.

"It seems it's time to go. Thank you for the dinner Teuchi-san, perhaps I'll come by again with the our bottomless pit."

Teuchi bowed. "Thank you for visiting us hokage-sama, and you too, Naruto. You're always welcome here."

The hokage lead Naruto out of the ramen stand and started toward an older section of Konoha. The blond boy, despite being exhausted, realized they were going in the wrong direction.

"Aren't you taking me to the orphanage jiji?"

"Of course not Naruto. It is not safe for you anymore, and probably never was. I'm sorry it took me so long to realize." The old man said, looking over his shoulder and smiling at the boy.

Naruto smiled tiredly back. The old man was still looking out for him. But he began to wonder where he was going to go. Would he go live with the hokage? Was some family going to adopt him?

"Then where are we going?"

Hiruzen grinned. "It's a surprise."

Naruto was slightly excited by that answer. As they continued to walk, he entertained the idea that he wouldn't have to live alone anymore. That he'd have someone to love and take care of him. He felt some of his tiredness fade and felt his smile grow wider the more he thought about it.

After a lengthy walk, the hokage stopped in front of a plain looking apartment building. Naruto scrutinized the large building and felt some of his previous excitement fade. It looked nicer than the orphanage, but anywhere would. He decided not to give up hope, maybe he'd stay with a ninja, someone who lived alone but had space for one more person in their life.

Naruto followed the hokage as he walked through the building. He noticed that it was sparsely populated, most people having moved into the newer areas of Konoha. As they moved up the mostly abandoned floors Naruto grew anxious. If there were so few people here, who would he live with?

Hiruzen stopped on the fourth floor and led the blonde boy down the hallway to a corner suite. Naruto didn't realize that they had stopped, being exhausted and lost in thought, and ran into the hokage. The old man helped Naruto up and, while he was still crouched, put something in Naruto's hand. A key. He spoke gently as he looked into the boy's bewildered eyes.

"Naruto, this is the key to your new apartment."

Naruto blinked a few times in shock. He was too tired to think much about it, but he was aware enough to be shocked. He had… an apartment? An entire apartment all to himself? The idea excited, frightened, and disappointed him. On one hand, he had his own apartment. He could actually keep his things safe and wouldn't have nasty people yelling at him all the time. On the other hand, he was still alone and he had no idea how to live by himself. He looked up at Hiruzen in disbelief.

"I have an apartment?"

"Yes Naruto. I'll show you around if you like."

The boy nodded dumbly and was led inside by the hokage. The apartment was spacious with a combined living area and kitchen, two bedrooms, two bathrooms, several large closets, and a laundry room. The place was completely furnished, albeit impersonally—the walls were bare, but every room was filled with furniture.

When Naruto saw what the old man had done for him, he rushed forward and was wrapped up in a warm embrace. His eyes were misty from the thoughtfulness of the gift. The hokage just smiled down at the boy.

"Thank you jiji."

"It was my pleasure Naruto. Now, you probably want to go to sleep. We can talk more about your apartment and you living by yourself tomorrow, okay?"

The boy nodded before yawning. He was barely able to stand he was so exhausted. The hokage chuckled and led the tired boy to one of the bedrooms. He was asleep before he even hit the bed. Hiruzen tucked the exhausted boy in, being careful not to wake him.

* * *

 **Thanks for waiting guys. I had to make a number of decisions about story structure. I liked many of the original ideas involved, but the style was just not appropriate for the material and themes I want to write. I have also split that original first chapter into three pieces, which is maybe a bit ridiculous, but I want a solid foundation to build from. It** _ **ought**_ **to move faster from here, but pacing is hard as hell. Figuring that out is one of the reasons I'm writing fanfiction. I'm also trying to keep chapters between 5000 and 7500 words, a fair enough range that it feels pretty open. I'm trying to get ~1,000 words a day. I obviously didn't make it this time, though. Heh.**

As you can see, there were some rather important changes. If there's anyone who wants spoilers, the events of that night are still available in the original and will probably not change too much. I liked that scene! If you want to avoid the spoilers and follow the emotional development of Naruto through this naturally, well, I'd suggest avoiding it. I feel like the new chapter's WAY better anyway.


	3. Chapter 3: Dreams

**Blood Ties**

 **Chapter Three: Dreams**

Across the battlefield, legions of poor young men lined up, grasping whatever weapons their liege-lords had been able to drum up. These were the fodder, take up space, take up time, waste the enemy's energy. Things were little better on this side of the field. But they _were_ better, and that's why Hiruzen had chosen this one to fight for.

His first decision as hokage, and already he regretted it.

"We never should have gotten involved," he muttered. "No amount of pay can justify this."

"There's no justification, Hiruzen. There is only reality. And _that_ as we all know is harsh, cruel, and unrelenting. We need funds. We need to repair our reputation." Danzō's voice rang with a granite hardness.

The words struck Hiruzen. Callous, calculated, and of course right in the end. He didn't want to believe it. He couldn't afford not to. And to think, he'd fought and clawed to take over the position of hokage. Would here and now, this very moment, begin the chipping away of his humanity?

"Those men over there are conscripts, Danzō. Involuntary service. The professionals are further back. They don't even _have_ village ninja over there, just a few mercenaries."

"All the better for us, save on manpower. If we're lucky, we could get out of this unscathed."

Before the two of them, standing at the forest's edge high in a Kyojin Tree, a map was affixed to the branch. One shuriken in each corner, and kunai spread like soldiers in formation. Danzō threw another shuriken to the map.

"If we pull the fangs, it'll be so much easier to behead the snake. I've been working on a special ANBU squad, just for missions like this."

Hiruzen's muscles began to involuntarily tense, his back, his fists. His teeth started to grind before he noticed. And he let it happen.

"No! None of the secrets and hidden things people expect of us." Hiruzen took a deep breath. "Danzō, I've been giving this much thought. We can't avoid slaughter, violence is our trade. But we should stand apart from the others. Keep the ninja from the shadows, as much as we can."

"Hmm. I disagree. Everything casts a shadow Hiruzen, it's when things start missing their shadows that the world falls apart. This is who we are. We strike in the dark, behind the back, where we can't be seen."

"It's not who we have to be." Hiruzen's eyes fixed to the lines of men-at-arms, nervously shuffling as the lords milled about on their war-bred chargers. "Honor is not exclusive to the samurai. We will strike fear not just in their hearts, but in their minds. Fire from the front leaves more of an impression than a knife in the back."

Danzō fumed and tried to argue for his special Anbu. Assassins of assassins as he would say, the shadow of shadows, second impressions seldom seen. There was little time for the argument, and Hiruzen was flush with the power of his newfound position, deeply trusted still by all of Konoha. They parted ways, the divide of authority cracking their long-held partnership. Hiruzen's words were not idle, and there was more that Danzō hadn't needed to know. The man was already dubiously loyal as it was.

He arrived to the front, flanked by a dozen hand-picked Jōnin. Recognizable faces, men and women not just elite but remarkable, memorable. The antithesis of the shadow warrior. These were the chakra-masters, fighters of spectacle and vast destruction, something frowned upon in decades past.

The enemy advanced, and Hiruzen hardened himself to the task at hand. He gave a hand-signal and the line spread apart, encompassing as much of the front as twelve people can. The men were a hundred meters away, marching steadily. Fifty meters, shoddy weapons and dangerous farm implements wavering in the face of steadily calm ninja. Thirty meters and they sped up, anxious about the flickering hands of the ninja. Every man hears stories.

Fifteen feet, and hundreds of men were swallowed by a wall of flame. The screams, the smell of men cooking in their armor, in their scraps of leather washed over Hiruzen. It seemed familiar somehow, like he'd met this scene before. But closer, smaller. More personal.

He awoke, sweating. Not from suddenly being thrust to his younger self, still confident and full up with optimism. It was the flames themselves, that smell.

"Damn it, Naruto." He murmured as wakefulness continued its crawl down his nervous system. "How could you have already seen worse."

The burns, and that lingering smell that seemed trapped far up inside his skull, the smell of chakra-roasted flesh. He didn't experience the nausea anymore, just a deep hollow pain. "One of my ninja. _My_ ninja."

It haunted him more than it should. If it had been one of Danzō's, or Fugaku bastard that he was, it would have been easier. Conspiracy has a logic to it, a goal decided on after long thought, a rationality that, however twisted, can be confronted.

It was the fact that it was Koji, of all people. Yosuke Koji, a civilian-born Jōnin, former-ANBU captain. Pillar of the community, giving his home to refugees after the rampage, supporting the orphanage with his wages, striving constantly to fulfil the Will of Fire. Resilient nearly beyond reason, but only nearly. His family, a civilian wife and two sons, killed in the Kyūbi's rampage.

Hiruzen closed his eyes, pressing them too tightly. The pain helped.

Koji should have known better, he _did_ know better. It was not on his failings that this would be seen, nor could it be. If such a man could give in to his anger, his sadness, then why should anyone else refrain?

"The narrative. 'Control the narrative.'" He murmured with a dark growl lurking just below. A fragment of the wisdom of the shadows. Hiruzen had learned Danzō's lessons the only way he knew how, by becoming their victim. _Titles and authority are the flimsy implements of a poor workman. I'll craft my story with the fabric of memory and watch your tools bend and break._

Danzō was a bastard, and even after all these years he was still right far more than was comfortable. But that's not what Hiruzen truly hated. The man was often right _because_ he was a bastard.

* * *

Maito Gai usually slept like a stone. He was famed for it, among the Jōnin. In any position, at any time, no matter the noise, no matter the smell. If he could still think and breathe, he could put himself to sleep. More than once he had fallen asleep standing still with his eyes open.

Tonight, he was tossing and turning, violently twisting in his sleeping bag. His rolling built in momentum, careening him between two trees. Then it settled into a rhythm, the cracking of detritus underneath his sleeping bag, the shifting of loose dirt still dry before the winter rains, the thump of his body as it finished one leg of its roll and started the next. This wasn't the rhythm of sleep, it was the rhythm of battle.

In a rush, everything collapsed. A branch gave way and Gai was crushed in a pile of wood and leaf. Before he had a chance to react, his partner had rushed over and begun clawing at the debris. They struggled both, from above and below, for longer than two men of their experience had any right to. Soon enough, Genma gave up on shifting the wood, and slashed away with a kunai. Gai was able to push through the damaged branch, cracking it deafeningly, and wriggled free from his sleeping bag. He jumped to his feet in a cascade of leaf and splinters.

"Gai!" Genma whispered, yelling as loud as possible with his voice still choked off. He spun frantically around, touching eyes to every object in visual range. "Are we under attack? What's happened!"

Gai sighed, eyes overcast. Konoha's Green Beast, the Mighty Gai, taken by a dream. He turned to the trees himself, but it would have been too late. It was too dark to see much of anything, clouds overhead blocking any twinkle of light. If they were being tailed so closely, that even now the scouts remained hidden, he would never have woken. Genma had a kunai in each hand, but they were shaking so badly he was more likely to cut himself than any enemy.

"Nothing. It's nothing, Genma." Maito Gai took a deep breath, and in an instant his entire demeanor reverted to its normal cheer. "Just a bad dream is all, nothing I can't overcome! Sorry to startle you."

Gai laid a comforting hand on Genma's shoulder and could feel the tension begin to drain away from the man. Without the tension keeping him still his whole body began shake, almost enough to tear him apart. Gai gently guided him back to their fire pit. It was coals now, cold as the night. Still, some of the warmth lingered nearby, captured in the hollow base of the lonely Kyojin, a woody cavern big enough for five men. It kept the light out and the heat in, and with Genma's knack for fire chakra there was no need to worry about smoke. Gai had always appreciated that about the man, it let him focus on his strengths.

On the edge of the Land of Fire it was a giant amongst lesser trees, reaching up to the clouds. It even had its own name, Wanderer, as the last living Kyojin in all the Land of Wind. A stalwart watchman before the desert took hold. Gai had slept in its embrace more than a dozen times now, but he had needed to be away from it this night. There was something about Kyojin wood, it seemed to trap memories and seed dreams.

They might still be on the trail, Gai suddenly realized. Ambushed, they hadn't been certain of anything until Masami fell. She had taken a kunai, from someone who had no business even touching her, right at the base of her skull. The thought, the vivid memory, its smell and sight and texture, made Gai a little lightheaded. It wasn't the first time he'd lost a shinobi, but it was the first time he'd been team leader. The first time he was responsible.

He applied his practiced calm and optimism to his features and settled Genma down on his sleeping bag. Gai's shock was nothing next to Genma's. He was pale, shaking through his whole body, eyes darkly ringed and growing darker. Gai knew his shinobi well, it had always been a knack, and Genma hadn't slept in days. He's never told Gai if there was anything between him and Masami, but it seemed now their relationship had been deeper than just squadmates.

"I should never have fallen asleep," Gai said. "Even if we're reduced, I'm still the team leader. I should've seen how her death is affecting you. I'm sorry Genma, but hold on! The will of fire burns bright in us! We will be warm in Konoha's embrace before you know it. But first you need to rest."

"Gai," Genma murmured. "Gai, I'm afraid to sleep. I know, I _know_ , she'll be there, waiting for me. Accusing me, hating me. "He glanced down to his hands, heavily wrapped with bloodstained bandages.

"I know, Genma," Gai murmured. "I know too well. My dreams woke me tonight, nothing else. Masami is not resting peacefully, and she's joined by so many others. But tonight, I need you to sleep. We have much ground to cover tomorrow. We're lucky the Suna shinobi haven't found us yet, but they're bound to sooner than later."

"I can't." Genma closed his eyes, and immediately opened them, tears welling. "I see her face, Gai. Her surprise, her pain." Genma swallowed heavily. "What happened? I still don't know. I can't understand, what could we have done? What did we do wrong?"

"Nothing Genma," Gai said. He had given this much thought over the past two days of running. "We sprang a genjutsu trap, without a specialist in our team. It seems to me like they knew to expect us. Suna doesn't send Baki on just any patrol mission. We're lucky to still be breathing."

The clouds shifted outside, and the moon shone down, a bright red.

"Tonight's not a good night for dreams." Gai rummaged through his utility pack, strapped to his inner thigh. He withdrew a small syringe filled with a viscous, shimmering liquid. "I always bring sedatives. You never know when they might come in handy. There's enough in here to kill a man, but a third of it will put you down for a few hours."

"Gai, no! What if they catch us?"

"With surprise on _our_ side, I can take them." He gave Genma his biggest grin. "They don't let just anyone lead a squad of chūnin, you know."

"But-"

"Genma, you're no good to anyone right now. Breaking your neck slipping from a tree won't help anything. Masami would want to see you go on. You need to stay strong, and from here get stronger. Make her proud, be honorable and brave and fiery for her memory."

Genma couldn't muster more words, and Gai was grateful of that.

* * *

Naruto had no memory of where he was, or how he'd gotten there. One moment, Hiruzen was putting him gently to bed, the next he was in this strange hallway, alone. Naruto was intimately familiar with bad dreams, and this had that usual crawling sensation feeling. It was an imminent shock down his spine that never came, a slithering coldness worming its way deeper, but somehow never seeming to go anywhere. It's being on the edge, perpetually verging.

He pinched his hand and didn't wake up. He slapped himself, punched himself, and tried kicking himself when all the rest failed. In the attempt he lost his balance and splashed to the floor, his face just rising from the tar-black water. It was the first moment he'd actually used his senses.

The walls to either side were lost in blackness up above. Cracks in them were splayed like some giant spider's web pinned up for display, radiating well out of sight. A deep mottled gray, they were not-quite metal and not-quite stone, both worn and fresh like new construction that had been built old. They ran upwards, but just how far Naruto could not see. No ceiling seemed to be hiding in the black, although Naruto couldn't see much further than his own height. In fact, the blackness seemed thicker than usual, rippling and flowing along the edges of Naruto's vision. For a brief moment, Naruto would have sworn he saw the darkness drip and splash into the water.

Naruto stood. _Weird Dream,_ he thought. He wasn't worried that he couldn't wake himself up, that happened every so often. But there was certainly no place in Konoha like this. So soon after his incident, Naruto felt deeply that the hokage would be keeping an extra close eye on him. No one would be able to make it past the old man. It had to be a dream.

Naruto walked over to one of the walls stood close, staring at one of the cracks. They were hair-thin jagged and long. Most cracks Naruto had seen were randomly spindly but there was a definite geometric quality to these, like the spokes of a spider's web or the natural fractals abundant in the Kyojin trees.

He touched his finger to a crack and reflexively yanked it back.

 _Huh? That's colder than ice!_

Naruto's curiosity had a tendency to get the better of his judgment. As a matter of fact, most of the time his judgment had nothing at all to say. He reached as high as he could and ran his finger along another crack, ignoring the cold. Pieces of the wall began to crumble at his touch, splashing quietly into the water below. They grew steadily larger until a chunk almost the size of a kunai broke off. Its splash startled Naruto into jumping backwards.

Bending down to pull it out of the water, he reached to where it fell and halted. The water was icy cold as well, but it felt thicker than it should. He hadn't noticed when he'd fallen in before. Swishing his hand around in curiosity, Naruto couldn't feel anything solid where the pieces of wall had fallen.

He reached further down and ran his fingers along the floor, hoping to find it nearby. All he found was icy metal. He bent down closer to try and get a look. The tip of his nose touched the surface, and he couldn't see a thing through the murk. Giving up on finding the piece of wall, he ran his hand along the floor from one side to the other. Rows upon rows of metal hills and divots greeted his fingertips, seemingly to randomly change size. Some no larger than a marble, others carved out as though someone with a mighty shovel had staggered through, choosing points at random to attack the floor. There was no reason to it.

 _This place is weird._

Looking up, Naruto noticed he could see farther along the hallway than he could up it. He looked behind him to check if things were the same. He almost ran headfirst into a wall of darkness. The same darkness he'd seen on the ceiling, shimmering, flowing, slithering. It had shifted mere inches from him and was moving closer still.

Naruto backpedaled as quickly as he could and stumbled, crashing onto the hard metal and into the cold water. The darkness continued to advance, and Naruto scrambled back to his feet. Running towards the far edge of darkness ahead, he found the air growing rapidly colder, freezing the water on his clothes, but not the water under foot.

 _Why's it so cold?_

The cold deepened as he pressed onwards. With every step his frosted clothes cracked and froze anew, a winter's staccato. His lungs burned with every breath taken, growing more and more ragged as every rush of cold air seemed to freeze another portion of his lungs. Sensation left his hands and feet, the numbness slithering along his limbs rowing closer and closer to his heart.

Darkness started flowing beside him, tendrils like shadows of snakes slithering past. He didn't see the rise in the floor until he was tripping over it. Time slowed. Naruto could see the water cascading down the rise, a grand waterfall, white foam frothing at the base and swirling away into the sea. For a moment, Naruto thought he could see stone through the water, an empty cave.

Time sped up. His vision blurred, refocusing just as he crashed into the dark water. He began sinking down, the water freezing to ice overhead. He tried to swim up to it, but the water was too heavy, it was pulling him down. He looked around in a panic. Neck wouldn't move, too numb. He tried it again, forced it around. He was blind in any direction but up. The weight of the water forced his head down. His burning lungs gave way for want of air.

Darkness rose up to meet him. He took a breath. Water rushed into his lungs. His body protested. His head began to feel light. He looked down, and all he could see was the darkness. Eyes squeezed shut, giving up hope.

 _No! I can't die! I have to be hokage!_ Naruto grasped onto this thought, feeling more lightheaded with every passing moment. He settled on the bottom, the cold metal stinging his face. The pain gave him the energy to struggle once more to be free of the crushing pressure. He thrashed about, trying to push it away, and felt his foot rise into the air, a spray of water flying from it. Raising his head up, the water broke over him like waves on a cliff. He coughed the water from his lungs, and collapsed onto his back, breathing raggedly.

He tried to grasp solid ground, but found his grip sliding over icy metal. He tried to sit up, but the burning kept him down. Looking up at the darkness overhead, he thought he could see it flowing, drifting forward in waves. Swimming through the black were small wisps of nothingness. Darkness so black that the complete absence of light seemed bright as the sun.

He tried to sit up again and found it possible, even with his lungs still recovering. Naruto climbed to his feet, and stumbled, barely catching himself. Choosing the direction he was facing as he stood up, he started walking. Light gathered around him, a bubble providing sight a few feet in every direction.

The cold stuck fast, his first step carried him onto ice. With the numbness now fully in control, Naruto could only tell by how little balance he could keep. Naruto kept his eyes fixed to the wall, and with every step the ice seemed to grow. Like some invasive lichen, blossoming over a stone in the course of a day, the ice grew before his eyes, consuming the walls and all their cracks. The still blackness underfoot and overhead merged into one, a tunnel of icy nothingness. He stumbled and skated on, his sphere of clear sight showing him nothing at all.

The numbness finally clawed deep into his chest, piercing his blood. Naruto could feel cold flow through him, an antithesis to the warmth of blood fueling him. He could feel again, touch and know he was touching, but it was like feeling through a blizzard, a coat of snow wrapping the world.

 _This has to be a dream._ It was the most dreamlike dream he'd ever had. But it felt real, perhaps even more real than reality. Naruto couldn't wrap his head around the idea, so he dropped it, though it didn't make the feeling go away.

He picked up this pace, trying to keep his mind away from the problem he couldn't come close to understanding. With each step he took, his bubble of light shrank a little. The darkness flowing above sinking to flow around him, a rock buried beneath a rushing river. He tried to run, and began to fall, slipping on the ice in a never-ending tumble. It seemed an eternity to Naruto, before he slammed into something and collapsed onto the floor of ice. Rubbing his head, he looked up to see an immense iron pillar thick as a Kyojin rising out of sight. Turning around, he could touch the darkness with his arm fully outstretched.

He closed his eyes. _It's just a dream. Wake up!_

The air shifted around Naruto. His frosted clothes were blown dry and washed with warmth in an instant. He opened his eyes. The darkness was gone, the light was gone. The world was clear, and he could see iron pillars reaching up into the darkness above, now high above, onto infinity in two directions. A wall. Behind him was nothing, no hallway, no features, an endless plain of ice.

Everything seemed normal again. Except, he still had the ice flowing through him. He shivered from the warmth now in his clothes, the contrast prickling and strange rather than comforting. After a few moments he felt near to burning from the heat, but he kept himself still. Years of hiding had honed his instincts, and he knew something was waiting in the space around him.

He turned again to face the iron pillar and was surprised to see nothing about it had changed. Walking until he came to its curve, the point he could at last see beyond, he immediately shied away. The darkness hadn't gone, it had moved. All of it, flooded behind the pillars, a solid wall blocking in whatever was on the other side. It was not moving any longer, no slithering or shimmering. When it didn't do anything, he inched forward, holding out a hand to try and touch it.

" **You have finally found your way here."**

The deep bass blew Naruto off his feet, several yards back. His smashed into the ice floor, and began to slide, the ice tearing through his clothes and tearing at his skin. He felt his consciousness start to slip away. A growl even louder than the voice quelled the pain somehow, halted his slide and he felt suddenly fine. No, more than fine, at ease. Peaceful.

Confused, Naruto staggered to his feet, and was surprised to see the darkness behind the bars gone, replaced by a hazy red light. He took a few steps closer, and immediately felt an enormous presence hidden in the shadows. He looked up to where he thought its head might be.

"Hey, who are you? Where am I? What's going on? This is the weirdest dream ever."

" **Unimportant."**

The enormous voice paused a moment, something between a breath and contemplation. Anything that could wield such a voice would take a mighty time to breathe.

" **You are not where you think you are."**

Naruto was awed, frozen in place. The bass voice lost its physical force, but it rampaged through his mind. Nothing could stand against it; no thought could survive its presence.

" **You wouldn't understand even were I to tell you. This is not a dream."**

"Um," Naruto stammered. "What is it then, big guy?"

" **Younger than the last."**

An enormous red eye seemed to part the darkness. All else remained in reddened shadow. It's slit pupil bore down on Naruto, thoughtful, focused. Poised to consume all knowledge of the small creature before it, to consume all parts of it.

" **Almost pitiable, a whelp damaged so."**

The voice had turned hypnotic. Naruto stood still on the ice, at peace yet confused, unable to turn away or to think. Unlike most who used larger words, forgetting or ignoring or exploiting that Naruto was six years old, these words penetrated. The words themselves seemed irrelevant to this thing speaking from the dark. It's meaning and intent, a depth of emotion and thought totally foreign to Naruto, seeped directly into his mind. Words were a mere conduit.

" **Your growth has yet to begin."**

"What," Naruto started to say.

" **I shall be your guiding voice. An echo amongst silence."**

Naruto's brow furrowed. "I heard jiji say something like that. Are you a conscience?" Naruto paused, briefly, barely long enough for a breath. "But why are you in jail? And these things are as big as the trees in Konoha! Can't you just squeeze out? Are you actually a giant? I thought they were just imaginary, jiji said so. Or is it just because we're in a special place? I don't get it. Oh! And you'll help me? Can you teach me ninja stuff? But, uh, if you're just my conscience, you wouldn't know ninja stuff right? I don't get it. Are you me?"

Naruto talked all the air out of his lungs. The presence behind the bars seemed to be waiting patiently for him to finish. It breathed in sync with Naruto, the depth of its inhalation spread out to Naruto. He could feel its lungs, and so his, inflate like bellows. Muteness took him so completely he could not so much as consider speaking.

" **Think what you will. I am here for your aid."**

The air changed as something shifted behind the bars. The enormous eye faded back into shadow, and the ground rumbled from the weight of movement. It seemed to Naruto like a mountain had awoken and begun its first stretch after millennia of sleep, so violent was the shaking.

" **Your questions now have no meaning. You will ask no more. You will listen."**

A pause, a shift.

" **You shall know my nature, in time. I will not speak of it. Know this. You are changed, in nature and body. I protect you now from the darkness of memory. In time a confrontation must come. I can play no part in this."**

A hesitation entered the voice, a tenor of uncertainty and concern that flooded Naruto. Whatever this thing was, Naruto could feel deeply that it meant well for him. Its only intent was his strength and safety.

" **Your old man plans for you. He is wise and seeks advantage. His mind demands recognition, his soul yearns insatiably for legacy. In your future he sees such things."**

More hesitation, and Naruto could feel now the voice was cautious. There were things it would not say to him. It was a familiar feeling, something he had sensed his whole life in all adults he encountered. With the thoughts and feelings of this entity flowing through him, he could see now that even old man hokage did the same.

" **I sense you thinking. Caution is admirable and ever advisable. Know this young one, a lesson your old man has left for the future. Truth is a commodity. What remains hidden remains valuable."**

Something seemed off now to Naruto, he tried to remember what had happened earlier and all was fog. Sensations and emotions were all he could gather; all content was lost. He squirmed, unable to speak or even think of doing so. Still the emotion of confusion and his deep curiosity and need for clarity reverberated within him. It was an internal war.

" **I see your concern. This place is foreign to you. In time, it will seem familiar as your Konoha. I stifle nothing, the human mind rejects strangeness such as this of its own accord."**

The was a great pause. The silence seemed to go on for hours. The soup of impressions the entity behind the bars left in Naruto's mind swirled. He could make nothing of it, not now. He hoped only for what he could, that some of these strange thoughts would last after he woke.

" **It is time to wake. I cannot call you here. When next we meet it will be of your doing. I shall watch and I shall wait. In times of need, perhaps, I may whisper."**

At its last word, the presence seemed to vanish entirely. Left alone Naruto could finally speak.

"What?" Already, he could barely recall what had happened. He spoke aloud, as if to reassure himself that he still existed. Even in dream.

"Was that my conscience? That's funny. Is it really real like that? I should ask jiji. But it didn't sound like part of me. I don't know any of that stuff."

Naruto looked deep into the darkness, and found it was once more shimmering and shivering. Yet now, it seemed to be doing more than following his movements. It was looking back at him; it was looking into him, with the same penetrating gaze of the giant eye. Naruto tried to hold his eyes to it and could only last moments. He whipped his head around and the world blurred.

He was standing on the rooftops of Konoha, the village his to survey. With a flicker of intention, he leapt across the street, flush with the grace of the elite ninja. A vague impression of something having just happened, something strange, washed over Naruto as he sped around his home. But the notion faded as quickly as it came. This was normal dreamspace, and here he was who he wanted to be.

* * *

People are insects.

Danzō had known this from his first experience of their ravenous appetites. Some were locusts, no thought, only desire. They strip the land bare: rape, burn, steal, devour. And the flies follow, strip the corpses of their fleshly dignity. Pillage the ruins of lives.

Others, the ants, they work and work. All they know to do is follow their routine, provide for the betterment of the hive. Workers, warriors, gatherers, in the end all are the same, interchangeable pieces in the great game.

Now, Danzō may despise the simplicity of the average man, but he knew fundamentally that they still were people. They subordinate their humanity and freedom of will to the greater wills of leaders and desires, but still they remain minded humans. These mindless creatures he saw milling about, dead eyed, inhuman in their single-mindedness were a far cry from his favorite metaphor.

Every step he took, uncertain chittering assaulted his senses. Like insects, they could sense that he did not belong. A foreign agent in the hive. No proper colony of insects would suffer intrusion like that for long. Danzō hurried along on his way. This was still Konoha, and his secret ways ought to still be there. This was his dream after all.

He tapped a complex pattern on brick wall, a dead-end alley. There was no sound, no giveaway that anything had changed. Danzō turned to his right and pressed a specific brick, the third row above the ground, and a small entryway opened in the wall. He scuttled through and it sealed behind him. Pure silence, a thing of beauty.

The passageways went for miles, countless turns and loops, a labyrinthine system riddled with pitfalls and countless other traps to capture intruders. Danzō had devised the entire structure, though many elements were initially in place from the time of the Shodai. He had been, justifiably, paranoid.

Down and down, deep beneath the earth. Into his sanctum, a name Danzō had not chosen. Some of the new recruits, those with a regretful amount of personality, had stuck on it. Still better than lair or den, as Hiruzen and his lackeys preferred. There was a single main room that had earned the name, known before as the Conference of Roots.

Danzō entered the dreamlike variant of his home. Every surface was throttled by the immense Kyojin roots, in every respect proportionate to their trunks above ground. Once there had been an aquifer here, long since drained, and the trunks to these roots long since felled to build the walls of Konoha. But the Conference was always a comfort to Danzō, even if the forest falls the roots remain. And this was no dream conjuration, although the subtle green glow was a nice touch.

There were always a few extras, never of his own choosing. The thrones, for example. A symbol of power and authority that Danzō could respect, in certain contexts. Hidden deep beneath the earth they were rather egoic and grandiose. The active-chakra map of the nations, that however was a proper dream of his. Variable scale, full topography with real-time input from agents in the field. With such a tool, what wonders he could achieve!

Seated on the thrones were men he admired, for their skill put to whatever use. Although these images were a far cry from the men themselves, they were full up of their own ideas. Danzō was nothing if not well-read.

He took his seat in his simple chair and the debate began.

* * *

Sleep did not come for Gaara. Perhaps that was not exactly correct. Sleep came, but Gaara fended it off tooth and nail. He'd fallen asleep two weeks ago, and he remembered what had happened.

As paced the floor of his cell, groaning in an attempt to drown out the voice in his head, he could feel his body slowing. He tried. Baki forced him to try; There was drugs, conditioning, hatred, and nothing worked well enough. Sleep was coming.

" **Can't you feel it boy? You cannot resist. I will be free!"**

The voice in his head was usually a dull whisper. Someone yelling from another room through a cloth gag. When he could hear it clearly it was already too late.

"No," He moaned. "Not again. No!"

" **There's nothing you can fucking do you shit! You are nothing, you pathetic waste of flesh, excrement pretending to be human! You're just a shell for me, and you'll hold a banquet for my power!"**

It's yelling was growing stronger and stronger. Gaara could feel his body weakening. One moment he was stumbling around the cell, the next he was prone, eyes closed in agony. He would not dream, not properly.

The voice became deep, guttural, a scream of infinite fury and stifled vengeance.

" **You are mine!"**

When he became aware once more he was in a prison of a different kind. The floor was pitch, the bars jagged tearing metal, the air caustic acid. All around was blood, endless blood, oceans of it. Every moment was a world of torment.

Nagging his vision was a tiny window into the world outside, his own body moving without him inside it.

 **Sorry for the wait again. I'll probably never be consistent with my writing, unfortunately, life is a bit too tumultuous for me for that to ever be the case. I also struggled quite a bit with how to structure this chapter and who to involve. It's a bit of an experiment with varieties of dream scenes. And this was mostly new content, so it took me a bit longer. The next chapter ought to have more progression. It will take me quite some time as I'm not fully certain how much story time I ought to cover. Hopefully I'll be done by the end of July.**

These characters are only some of the major players. I thought about including a Yamanaka, Inoichi probably, as well but I wanted to hold their intro off for a later date. I thought it better to introduce the contrasts of Danzō/Hiruzen and Naruto/Gaara alongside the intro to Gai and some of his altered character arc and backstory.

Just a reminder to ya'll that I'm winging this for the most part. I have no plan and I'm making it up as I go along. Next chapter will be a pacing experiment, at least as I envision it for now. Just as the last was a single scene and this is a collection of dreams.

Seems this may be more monthly than biweekly, sadly enough. Depends on factors outside my control, for the moment.

Peace out.


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